Born to Run

As everyone knows by now, I have decided to not seek election to a third term on the Board of Trustees.  After six years of serving the community, it was time to allow someone else to fill my seat and bring a new perspective.  When I think back on my time on the Board the things I am most proud of are my advocacy for fiscal responsibility, transparency and open communication with all residents.  However, accomplishing that required studying the issues, a willingness to speak up, making tough choices, taking strong positions and asking hard questions rather than simply accepting at face value everything that was handed to us.

As I have been listening to all the candidates running for the Board of Trustees, I have been impressed with them all, but there is one candidate that I have seen so far with the willingness and ability to carry on these critical traits.  That candidate is Rob Sandow.  I have known Rob Sandow for quite a while and always found him to be thoughtful, engaged and very knowledgeable on the issues around town.  As I have gotten to know him better, I have also found him to be incredibly passionate for South Orange, while also being approachable and open to suggestions and feedback.    Most importantly, he is well versed in the issues and is willing to challenge the status quo and ask the hard questions that need to be asked, both to ensure proper decisions are made and proper processes are followed, but also to ensure the public is properly informed about those decisions - before they are made and with full transparency.   Speaking from experience, I can tell you that these are all the right qualities needed most for a member of the Board of Trustees and something that is critically needed right now.

I have gotten to meet all seven candidates for Trustee and found them all to be honorable and decent people who want to do their part for the Village.  I commend all of the candidates for their willingness to run for office and wish them all luck.  We are very fortunate that there are seven committed and qualified individuals who are willing to volunteer for our community.  While we can only choose three out of the seven candidates in the election on May 14, my vote for one of those seats will be for Rob Sandow and I hope you will join me in supporting him.

Code of Silence - Part 2

Transparency 
- adjective \tran(t)s-ˈper-ənt\
- characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices.

Within Government, other than ethics, there is nothing more important than transparency.  All money being spent is not the Government's, but belongs solely to the people you represent.  As a result, the public has a clear right to know how money is being spent  - and why.   Additionally  there are very strict rules around procurement requiring competitive bidding and an open process to ensure fairness.  Lastly, South Orange has a very strict anti-"pay to play" ordinance to ensure that vendors comply with regulations and disclosures around campaign contributions.  To facilitate this, the Village Budget has been posted to the Village website at least since I have been in office, the list of all Bills paid is posted to the Village website and all meetings to discuss the Budget are open to the public and the minutes are posted to the Village website.  However, lately the word "transparency" is being thrown around a lot, yet words are cheap and action is what really matters.  I'd like to highlight three recent examples pertaining to:

• claims of "budget transparency"
• lack of transparency regarding the relocation of the Rescue Squad
• criticism on transparency around the Village Hall renovation project

"Budget Transparency"

Recently, an article appeared on the Village website stating that there will be "a budget tool launching this week, putting all of the Village's budget data in an easy to read, visual format".  While that sounds nice on the surface and Mr. Torpey has raised this suggestion as an idea in prior meetings, there was never any discussion among the Board of Trustees about whether there was even a need for this software and if so, what the requirements for it would be.  Going even further, a bid or RFP was never issued for the software and the award of a contract for this vendor was never even brought forth for review or voted on by the BOT.  As a result, I found it shocking to learn that this expenditure (estimated to be nearly $3000 ANNUALLY) was made without public or Board of Trustees discussion or approval.  Quite ironic for software that is alleged to "improve transparency".

While it is easy to dismiss an expenditure as small, with our obscene taxes, every expenditure matters and should be scrutinized to ensure it is something we really truly need or will be used by a large portion of the community.  The reality is that there is nobody clamoring for this and with the same money, we could simply spend less (shocking, I know!) or spend the money on something that would be utilized or appreciated by hundreds (or even thousands) of people, such as additional downtown concerts or beautification across the Village with new plantings or flowers, as just two of countless possible examples.  


Nobody would argue with a goal of "transparency", but in this case it is nothing more than a nice talking point without any value to the taxpayer.  There are so many anomalies with the Municipal Budget that simply looking at a line chart is meaningless without proper context. For example, there was a time in the past when line items were moved from the Capital Budget to the annual Operating Budget, so in that example, a line item in each budget could take a huge swing that year. Without that context, a chart will raise more questions than it answers. In addition, trying to answer certain questions, such as "how much money goes to SOPAC" is difficult to answer with a line chart since that operating subsidy is under "Recreation" (and additional funds are covered separately within the annual debt service and additional funds are also part of the rent that Clearview is supposed to pass through to the Village), which most people simply wouldn't know, nor does this tool even get to that level of detail. Asking "can we pave more roads" is not feasible because that is addressed within the Capital Budget and is not represented in this tool. Asking about the impact of hiring "x" more people in a given department is not feasible because most departments are covered by collective bargaining and a certain position may have a starting salary of say $30k that rapidly rises to over $90k in just 5 years. Without the context of these "steps", again it is infeasible and meaningless to draw any conclusions from a simplistic graphing tool.  There are countless other examples, but the bottom-line is that this is simply a costly solution in search of a problem that simply doesn't exist and calling something transparent, simply does not make it so. 



Relocation of the Rescue Squad

As an additional concern about Transparency, the Village is currently in the process of trying to identify a location for the Rescue Squad, which needs to be moved due to the upcoming redevelopment of that site next year by Jonathan Rose.  Over the past few months, a number of sites were explored, but recently the Board of Trustees was told that two Village-owned properties were the likely candidates.  Since the properties are both already owned by the Village, one would think a public discussion of developing Village-owned property would occur so that the whole community, and especially any potentially impacted neighbors, could be informed.  Despite a request by Trustee Gould at the March 28, 2013 Meeting to have this topic discussed in public, Mr. Torpey reassigned it to "Executive Session", which is not open to the public.   The exemptions to the Open Public Meeting Act that are allowed to be discussed in Executive Session are quite limited by State Law and this situation certainly doesn't seem to fall under any of them.  Once again, this lack of transparency is simply unfair to the public who have the right to see the deliberative process, and certainly unfair to the neighbors who have a right to know if the Village is planning to develop property near their home.





Village Hall renovation project

Lastly, the pending Village Hall renovation project will be one of the most expensive projects ever undertaken by the Village.  It is imperative that the public be kept abreast of the mounting expenses and the anticipated budget and timeline as we go.  I initially shared a public presentation in December 2011 with baseline estimates of over $5M for the project and for the past several months have been requesting that the Construction Manager provide an updated public presentation of where we are today.  When that never happened, I updated the presentation and shared it at the April 8 Board of Trustees Meeting with all information that we know as of today to let the public know that this project has now morphed to a $7.1M project - and it hasn't even started, yet.  I was criticized by Mr. Torpey and told that this was my "opinion".  However, I'll let the facts and numbers speak for themselves.  I will also defend the need, actually the right, of taxpaying residents to be provided this information frequently and without the "spin" that is far too common these days in South Orange.

The video of the presentation can be viewed below:



While my term in office is winding down, I will continue to call out clear offenses of transparency (during my term and beyond) and I urge the competing candidates for the Board of Trustees to pledge to adhere to the absolute strictest standards of transparency (and ethics) should they have the honor to serve the community.  We all deserve nothing less.  

Independence Day

While I love serving the public, I despise politics. And, the only thing worse than a politician is a career politician.  Because I never wanted to be considered either, after careful consideration, I have decided not to seek a third term as Trustee in the South Orange Municipal election on May 14.  Instead, I have determined it is time to focus my time and energy on both my family and on my professional career, as well as pursuing other interests.

It has been an incredible honor and privilege to serve the community for almost 6 years. Despite the multitude of meetings, challenging personalities, late nights and difficult issues, it has been a true pleasure volunteering to help our Village.  Far too many people run for office for the wrong reasons - whether to advance a personal agenda, obtain a better job or for their own self-promotion.   For me, it was always simply about representing our residents and I tried to do that as best as I know how.  While I am well aware there have been plenty of people who disagreed with me on various issues, I can only hope the legacy of my tenure can be that as a watchdog for fiscal responsibility, ethics, transparency, process and open communication, which were many of the tenets that I initially ran on back in 2007.

Without question, I made my share of mistakes and learned many lessons along the way.  I sincerely thank everyone for the wisdom and guidance you provided to me over the years.  Through neighborhood meetings, committee meetings, asking questions at Trustee meetings, Maplewood Online,  interactions with staff and literally thousands of emails to/from residents, I learned so much about the Village and about myself.  I always tried to make myself as accessible as possible, shared everything I could, voted for things that I felt were in the best interest of the Village, opposed things that were not and asked the questions that I thought the public wanted and needed to know.

I remain committed to completing my term with the same zeal over the next couple months and perhaps, someday, might consider getting back involved.  But for now, the time has come to pass the torch to someone who can hopefully carry forward the principles I tried to uphold while bringing a set of fresh perspectives and new ideas to our Village.   For anyone interested in throwing their hat into the ring, please feel free to reach out to me at MichaelCGoldberg@gmail.com to help you understand the issues and the challenges we face and to get my perspective of the time commitment required.  (The deadline for filing petitions is March 11.)

I'll have much more to say and many people to acknowledge over the coming months, but for now, Thank You South Orange!

Sandy

Now that the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy has finally passed and everyone in South Orange is generally back to their normal routines (except NJ Transit), I wanted to take a moment to recognize and thank some of the amazing efforts that occurred in the days immediately following the storm.  First and foremost, the South Orange Village staff who always do a great job, went above and beyond in their efforts.  Specifically:

• Public Works for working around the clock clearing the roads for days on end (from trees, leaves and snow...often all at the same time)
• Police and Fire for keeping everyone safe during and after the storm dealing with countless calls and issues
• Village Clerk for organizing all the logistics for the presidential election and the relocation of polling places that did not have power
• South Orange Library and staff - for providing a safe place for people to charge their devices and stay warm, while also acting as a Shelter at night
• All other departments for continuing to do their jobs, while dealing with the countless challenges and disruptions that the storm provided

Additionally, I want to thank all of the places in town that opened their doors for people who did not have power - from SOPAC, to numerous Houses of Worship, to many businesses to ordinary residents who opened up their homes.  These countless heroes allowed people to get online, do work, have a warm place to sleep, a home-cooked meal or just be together in a time of need.

The last point regarding residents is one that I found so inspiring that I want to expand upon it.  Not only did people open their homes to each other, but the efforts that residents undertook to help each other was astounding.  For example, there were many streets in town with power on only one side of the street.  Those residents helped each other out by stringing extension cords across the street to help their neighbors who did not have power.  There were also countless stories of people helping each other with reconfiguring their gas boilers to bypass the electrical ignition, allowing them to have heat.  While these probably were not the safest ideas in the world, and not something I would generally recommend, people did what they needed to do to help each other out in a time of crisis.

In addition, residents who volunteer for the South Orange CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) stepped forward to volunteer their time to help spend the night with those who needed a place to stay at the South Orange shelter.

When it became abundantly clear that PSE&G did not know the extent of the power outages, residents banded together and crowdsourced a Google map of all streets in Maplewood and South Orange to visibly map the power outages  (http://goo.gl/maps/16AFW) across the two towns.  This map was posted online and updated as new information was provided.

With the disastrous communications from NJ Transit, residents created a SOMA Commuters Facebook Group (http://www.facebook.com/SOMACommuters) and a SOMA Commuters Twitter account (@SOMACommuters) to provide up to the minute updates on commuter-related information in order to help their neighbors navigate the confusing and inconsistent information needed to get them to work.  Now that the worst has passed, this free "service" is still continuing and has become one positive outgrowth of the storm.

Lastly, in the aftermath of the storm, residents recently came together to organize and attend a group clean-up of our parks in order to help both the Village and the Public Works department who simply have too much to do.

While there is no question there is plenty to learn from this storm in order to improve for the next time, the hard work of all Village staff, together with the spirit of cooperation and neighborliness that residents demonstrated all across town to help each other, was so amazing and exemplified the true essence of our community.  As we head into the Holiday Season, let's all be mindful of this spirit and continue to work together and help each other in any way we can - all year round.   Happy Holidays!

Wrecking Ball

Three years ago, in September 2009, I wrote a blog post with an update on the proposed Village Hall renovation project and on December 19, 2011, I shared a presentation at the BOT meeting with the baseline time and cost estimates for the project at that time.  At the September 24, 2012 BOT Meeting, the Architect and Construction Manager for the project provided a public update.  Now that things are moving ahead with the project,  I just wanted to re-cap recent updates on the single largest project the Village has undertaken in many years.

Since the presentation in 2011, a number of activities have occurred over 2012:

• A bid was advertised and a contract was awarded to Jay Shapiro and Associates for $207,816 as the Construction Manager for the project
• The architect has largely completed the design for the building and completion of Construction Documents is underway
• A decision was reached to temporarily relocate Village Hall staff during the project to mobile offices (i.e., trailers) that will be located on property owned by the Village on 2nd Street
• A decision was reached to implement a geothermal HVAC system and a change order for $53,870 was issued to HMR architects for the design of the HVAC system and the design of the temporary office space in the trailers
• We were informed that an updated asbestos assessment was required in order to perform a proper asbestos abatement.  A contract was issued for $17,750 for the assessment and a separate contract for the abatement will be awarded, once the assessment is completed.

Over the next few months, plans for vacating Village Hall will get underway with the goal to have all staff and equipment out of the building in Q1 2013, so the asbestos abatement can occur.  In parallel, the construction documents will be finalized by the architect, the actual construction project will be put out to bid and a contract will be awarded for construction. 

Currently, it is anticipated that the construction project will begin around June 2013 and last for at least two years with the cost estimate for the entire project currently at approximately $5.7M.  However, until we receive actual proposals to do the work and until the work gets underway the duration and cost is just an estimate, based on the information that we know right now.

Once Village Hall is vacated, it is expected that "formal" Village Meetings (i.e., BOT Meetings, Planning Board Meetings and Board of Adjustment Meetings) will be held at SOPAC and routine committee meetings will be held in the Baird Center.  Further details of this still need to be finalized  and will be communicated publicly at that time.

I share everyone's concerns about the inherent risks for such a costly project, but want to be straightforward about where we are currently and what we expect going forward.  As with ANY project, the budget and duration is likely to change as things progress, but with the guidance of the construction manager and the support of Village staff, the goal is to minimize and mitigate the risks.

I will continue to provide periodic updates as the project evolves.  In the meantime, please feel free to post any questions or comments on this blog or send them to me directly at mgoldberg@southorange.org

Code of Silence

Since the publishing of a story in Sunday's Star Ledger about recent discord on the South Orange Board of Trustees, I have received many comments and questions about what is going on.  Most people have been incredibly supportive and sympathetic about the dysfunction, but some people have asked where this came from and what can be done about it.

By way of background, over the past few months a number of critically important requests for items to be added to the Board of Trustees meeting agenda have been denied by Village President Torpey.  The process is (and has always been) that Department Heads and Trustees submit requests for items to be placed on the agenda a week or so in advance of the meeting.  Generally, all items were simply included unless they needed further vetting in a committee or were redundant with another request.  However, over the past few months the list of rejected items has included the following important issues that impact all residents:

• Marylawn Development
• Hiring of a Business Recruiter
• Moving Elections to November
• BOT Meeting Agenda Process
• Assembly Bill S-1534
• New Water Supply Source
• PBA Collective Bargaining
• OPIEU Collective Bargaining
• South Orange Commons (Beifus Site Redevelopers Agreement update)
• Personnel Investigation
• Code Enforcement Staffing
• East Orange Water Commission

These are all items that do not fall within our normal committee structure and which required discussion by the full Board of Trustees in either open or executive (closed) session.   We were all elected to represent the community and that includes having difficult conversations about complex topics.....and we all volunteered to do this job which requires us to sit in meetings that often run very late.  Everyone on the Board has the right to express an opinion on these topics, but to  eliminate the opportunity to even have a discussion is simply wrong. 

This all came to a head in early July, when I learned at a Public Safety Committee Meeting that the Police Chief was also instructed to stop sending reports about criminal activities to the Board of Trustees.  Since I have been on the Board of Trustees in 2007, the Police Chief would share periodic updates about specific crimes or arrests that occurred in town, on the premise that the Board should be informed if anyone inquired about the situation.  However,  I noticed that starting in May 2012, the BoT was no longer receiving these reports.  After being told that the Chief was told by the Village President not to send the reports to the Board, I raised the issue at the July 9 BOT Meeting.  The Board of Trustees agreed the reports should be received by the full BOT and a formal policy was adopted at the subsequent meeting to codify this. 

As these topics were discussed at public meetings (and by the public on Maplewood Online), a reporter at the Star Ledger picked up the story by watching excepts of videos that were posted online:



and contacted members of the Board of Trustees for comment. 

Ironically, all of this occurred back in the earlier part of the Summer and for the most recent BoT Meeting on September 10th, all requested agenda items were listed and the Police Chief has resumed sharing reports of police activity with the Board of Trustees.  So, hopefully these problems have now been put behind us and, in reality, the Star Ledger article was "old news".  Hopefully these discussions and the attention generated by the article has accomplished  everyone's goal  - to return to real transparency and open government in South Orange.

Chimes of Freedom

Lately, there has been alot of misinformation about the Village's plans for moving municipal elections to November and I thought it would be worth clarifying the situation.

A majority of the Board of Trustees has agreed, in principle, to move our municipal election to November, starting in 2013.  In fact, an ordinance to implement the change was drafted by Village Counsel and was requested to be put on the May 14 meeting agenda.  (However, the Village President chose to omit the request, along with 3 other agenda requests, for an undisclosed reason which I can only assume was because he did not support the idea, despite the verbalized desire of a majority of the Board for the election move.  The suppression of agenda items by one person is simply contrary to what a democracy is all about.  Each member of the Board has the right to express themselves on any topic, but stifling that expression is simply unacceptable.)

Similarly, moving the election to November will improve the democratic process by increasing voter participation as has been shown in towns like Mahwah which already moved their non-partisan municipal election from May and held their election in November 2011, resulting in a 41.6% turnout, compared to a 16.2% turnout in the prior May election.  In addition, another 19 municipalities (out of 86 nonpartisan municipalities) have also agreed to move their May non-partisan Municipal election to November starting in either 2012 or 2013. (and over 85 percent of School Boards in NJ have also decided to move their non-partisan elections from April to November:  http://www.njsba.org/sb_notes/20120222/november.html). 

Likewise, voter tunout in South Orange is also far less in May (dropping to a record-low 11% in 2011) than in November as shown by the following chart that was compiled by the Charter Review Committee:
Year      May       November
2005       26%            48%
2007       36%            24%
2009       18%            45%
2011       11%            29%

Aditionally, moving the municipal election to November will save taxpayer money.   According to the Charter Review Committee, municipal elections in South Orange that are held in May cost approximately $22,000 every time they are held.  Clearly, moving the municipal election to November and consolidating all elections at one time will eliminate this extraneous expense.   Quite simply, moving the municipal election to November will save money and increase voter participation, which is a win-win for all taxpayers and residents.

I initially had my own concerns about moving the election to November due to the perceived fear of partisan influence in our non-partisan elections.  However, I ultimately weighed the potential for greater voter participation in our democracy as far more important.  It is a simple fact, based on historical data, that in everyone's busy lives, people are more likely to be aware of and participate in an election when it occurs in November.

Since the next South Orange municipal election is not scheduled until 2013, we do not need to act immediately and ultimately the Board of Trustees agreed to observe the results of the 2012 November non-partisan elections in other municipalities in order to have more data before formalizing the move for South Orange in 2013 later this Fall.  There has also been some consideration to include this as a referendum on the ballot in November since moving the election will also extend the terms of all seven members of the current Board of Trustees.

However, just like placing all requested items on a public agenda, moving elections to November seems to be the most obvious choice for an open, transparent and participatory democracy.